Chapter 80

DORIS

When I got home from eating lunch with Nina, I had that post-afternoon slump that came from too many french fries and not enough coffee. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Nina had said. If Cathy was desperate, she would do anything.

But why would Cathy be desperate? I thought she had a great singing career, lots of friends, lots of fans, and lots of money.

I remembered what Nina said about Google-able, so I googled Cathy.

What I found surprised me. First was the information about her band. She hadn’t exaggerated. They were famous within the alternate rock niche. There were plenty of pictures of Cathy performing.

But when I looked carefully at the more recent articles, I found out that her drummer had stolen all of the band's money. The drummer, who was also her ex-boyfriend was a scum-ball of the highest order.

The drummer had not only stolen the band’s money, and Cathy’s money, but also hacked into all of the other supporting team's bank accounts and stolen their money from them, including taking all the funds that were set aside for a new record to be produced and marketed.

That drummer had drained all of Cathy's savings. One article said he even stole all her clothes and sold them.

That could definitely make somebody desperate.

I decided to dig deeper. After all, I knew Cathy in college, but I didn’t really know her well. We had been more acquaintances than friends.

It took a while to find information about her past before she started the band. What I found made me frown.

Cathy had been very abused as a child. As a teen, she had bought a lawsuit against an uncle, who had used her, but the uncle was so much more powerful than Cathy that she ended up worse than when she had brought it to the attention of the authorities.

That would scar anyone.

It set Cathy on a destructive path. When she was in middle school and high school, she was caught breaking the law. There were a few arrests for petty things like minor thefts from convenience stores and disturbing the peace. By the time she got to college, it seemed like she had straightened herself out. I had to admire that.

But I could see how having such a rocky start in life could make somebody panic if they suddenly had no money and were pregnant, and somebody like Arthur was around.

I worried about how far Cathy would go.

I bit my lip. A vision flashed before my eyes, one where Cathy had somehow manipulated the world so Arthur, Mia, and a very pregnant Cathy were a family, and I was homeless.

Friday, Noah, Nina, Nathan, Arthur, Mia and I were all down in front-row seats for the hockey game. This was an essential game against the New York Rangers. They had just recruited a few new, young hotshot Canadians onto their team.

The New York Times and the Huffington Post had done articles about how the New York Rangers were the favorites to win and the newbies to the hockey circuit, the Arctic Avalanches, were sure to lose.

Noah, Nina, Nathan, Arthur, Mia, and I held our breath as, with only four seconds to go, Quinton and Pierre hit the puck back and forth as they sped down the ice so fast, they seemed to defy physics.

The goalie for the New York team, with a stance like an angry gorilla and expression to rival Jason from the Friday the 13th horror movies, had his stick at the ready. He was not going to let them score in the final moments.

I held my breath. I knew how important this was. If Pierre could achieve this goal, he would get a lot of credibility as a new captain.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Arthur whispered under his breath.

I looked at the time that was counting down in lights on the big scoreboard up on my left. Thirty seconds to go, twenty seconds, fifteen, ten, five.

Pierre had the puck.

“He’s too far away. He’ll never make it,” Nina said. "It’s a one-in-a-million shot."

Three seconds.

Pierre faked left, shot right, slid the puck hard right into Quinton's waiting hockey stick. Quinton shot it with the force of a rocket and a loud crack that might have broken his stick.

One second.

The puck hit the side of the goal.

The goalie dove for it.

The puck slid under the goalie's armpit and into the goal.

“He shoots, he scores!” Mia yelled.

Buzzzzzzz! The alarm blared. Goal scored. Game over.

The crowd went wild. Everyone jumped to their feet and cheered.

The New York Rangers were the favorite. New York was the home team. Everyone thought they would win. They had every advantage. But everyone loved an underdog story. And no one could begrudge this victory.

There hadn’t been an ice hockey story like this since the 1980 upset Victory On Ice. Nathan grabbed Nina and spun her around. Arthur hugged me. Noah lifted Mia onto his shoulders.

The loudspeakers blared the "Eye Of The Tiger", the Arctic Avalanche's victory song.

The Arctic Avalanches did a victory lap, and as Quinton came in front of us, he slammed his whole body up against the glass in front of Nina, planted a big kiss on the glass. He skated a step back, pointed to his eyes with two fingers, and then her lips. He mouthed the words, 'I’m coming for you,' and skated away.

The Arctic Avalanches went to the center of the ice to shake the hands of the opposite team.

We stared at Quinton in shock. Perhaps he didn’t know that Nathan was with Nina. Regardless, it was a brave move.

Arthur had been looking at Mia giving her high-fives, so Arthur didn’t see it, but from the storm cloud on Nathan’s face, he definitely did. This was not good.

Thirty minutes later, we all stood outside the locker room, except for Arthur, who was inside congratulating his new team on their epic win. The hockey players came out freshly showered and looking like they had won a world war instead of the game that pushed them into the semi-finals.

I had to admit, despite my upset at Quinton's brazen actions toward Nina, I couldn’t deny that he skated like a champ.

I was almost as high as Arthur and the rest of the team from the excitement.

There were many reporters, pretty women and handsome men with their microphones in front of their faces and their camera people behind them, vying for a chance to get the leading players, especially Quinton and Pierre, hoping to get a one-minute soundbite.

All the athletes had been prompted on how to answer the questions. I knew how it went. 'I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and luck. I’m just a humble player, etc.'

And then we were all off to the sports bar Arthur had reserved for the after-party; even Mia was allowed to come for the first 15 minutes.

As soon as Mia left, Quinton came over to our table and asked Nina directly for a date to one of the most expensive restaurants in town.

I looked at him in shock. His antics in the rink or one thing, but Nathan was sitting with his arm around Nina’s shoulders. Quinton’s behavior was a little out of line.

Nina’s eyes opened wide. She was in a hard place. I could tell she didn’t want to say no, but she definitely couldn’t say yes.

I stood up and put my hand gently on Quinton's arm. “I have a friend I want you to meet,” I said. And I led him away to the other side of the bar where luckily, my friend, who owned the blueberry farm and air balloon company in New Jersey, was sitting with a couple of our friends from high school and Brittney from Marcus Properties.

I introduced Quinton to everybody and left him to his playboy ways with the group of ladies.

Cathy came in, strutting like she owned the place and wearing a sexy red dress. She was also wearing an Arctic Avalanche hat.

I considered Quinton's behavior and Cathy’s appearance a bad omen.